With their ever increasing performance and lowering cost, unmanned movable objects, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are now extensively used in many fields. Representative missions include crop surveillance, real estate photography, inspection of buildings and other structures, fire and safety missions, border patrols, and product delivery, among others. For obstacle detection as well as for other functionalities, it is beneficial for UAVs to be equipped with obstacle detection and surrounding environment scanning devices. Light detection and ranging (LIDAR, also known as “light radar”) is a reliable and stable detection technology because it is able to function under nearly all weather conditions. However, traditional LIDAR devices are typically expensive because they need high performance analog-to-digital converter chips, making most traditional LIDAR devices unfit for low cost unmanned vehicle applications.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved techniques and systems for implementing LIDAR scanning modules, for example, such as those carried by aerial vehicles, aerial platforms, autonomous vehicles, boats, or robots.